Shoo Fly Snowflake

It's time for the last Island Batik ambassador challenge of the year.  How is it the end of the year already?!?  We were challenged to make something to celebrate a holiday of our choice.  I don't do a lot of holiday decorating so I was looking for something holiday appropriate that would also not be out of place all year.  I really like the quilt that AccuQuilt used as their summer sew-along: Shoo Fly Spin.  It was designed to be cut with their Cube, and they give cutting instructions for a variety of sizes.  I chose to use the 6" cube, which gave me a finished quilt of 50" x 68".

When I follow someone else's pattern, I rarely use colors exactly as they are shown in the sample.  But this time, I liked theirs so much I didn't change anything!  My borders are different, but that was the only change I made.  I used fabrics from Island Batik's always available Foundations collection: solid white, solid gray, and a red blender.  The binding is solid dark gray.  

Materials used in this project were given to me by Island Batik, Accuquilt, Schmetz, Hobbs, and Aurifil.

The quilt uses two blocks: a traditional shoo fly and a block Accuquilt created using their cube shapes.  I think the 2nd block looks like a snowflake.  Husband didn't think the colors looked holiday enough for a holiday challenge.  When we were out at a local holiday lights celebration, I pointed out some decorations that looked like peppermints, and he conceded that maybe the blocks looked a little like peppermints. I chose to name it Shoo Fly Snowflake for my interpretation, but whatever gets you to a holiday look works for me!  I like that I could put it out before Christmas and leave it out through Valentine's day.

 

I used Aurifil thread in all piecing and quilting. For piecing I used up various light-colored bobbin ends, and I quilted with white thread.  I remembered to start with a fresh Schmetz needle at the start of the project.  The batting is Hobbs 80/20, though admittedly I created a Franken-Batt with various pieces of leftover Hobbs batting.  (I like fusible batting tape to create a larger batting from leftover pieces.)

My family took a vacation in early December.  On the drive from Charlotte to Florida, I sewed all the binding.  I took advantage of the decorated hotel lobby for photos.  

This brings my 5th years as an Island Batik ambassador to a close.  I can't believe I've been working with Island Batik for 5 years!  I so appreciate the opportunity to work with their beautiful fabrics!  Thanks for another great year, Island Batik!